GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, Dec. 30, 2008

Israel Prepares For Next "Phase" In Gaza

Prime Minister Says Aerial Attack Was "First Of Several" Tactics As Offensive Reaches Turning Point

  • Play CBS Video Video On The Ground In Israel

    "Only On The Web": CBS News' Mark Phillips reports from the Israeli-Gaza border where he explains rockets are still falling in a campaign Israel has yet to call a success.

  • Video Israel Promises 'All-Out War'

    Israel has promised an "all-out war" against Hamas forces, firing hundreds of rockets and bombs into Gaza. Now will they send ground troops, too? Mark Phillips reports.

  • Video Palestinian Reaction to Gaza

    Riyad Mansour, the permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations, sat down with CBS News Correspondent Meg Oliver and offered his reaction to the conflict in Gaza.

    • An Israeli soldier is seen at a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Dec. 30, 2008.

      An Israeli soldier is seen at a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Dec. 30, 2008.  (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

    • In this photo released by Israel's Government Press Office, Israeli rescue workers evacuate a wounded Israeli from a construction site where a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza hit, in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, Israel, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.

      In this photo released by Israel's Government Press Office, Israeli rescue workers evacuate a wounded Israeli from a construction site where a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza hit, in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, Israel, Monday, Dec. 29, 2008.  (AP Photo/Israel Government)

    • A Palestinian man carries his wounded child to the treatment room of Kamal Edwan hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Dec. 29, 2008.

      A Palestinian man carries his wounded child to the treatment room of Kamal Edwan hospital following an Israeli missile strike in Beit Lahiya, northern Gaza Strip, Dec. 29, 2008.  (AP Photo/Ashraf Amra)

    • A Palestinian family reacts as they rush past a burning building after an Israeli missile strike in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 28, 2008.

      A Palestinian family reacts as they rush past a burning building after an Israeli missile strike in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, Dec. 28, 2008.  (AP Photo/Hatem Omar)

    • An Israeli border police officer takes a position during clashes with Palestinian stone throwers that erupted following a demonstration against the Israeli missiles strike on Gaza, at the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, Dec. 29, 2008.

      An Israeli border police officer takes a position during clashes with Palestinian stone throwers that erupted following a demonstration against the Israeli missiles strike on Gaza, at the Kalandia checkpoint between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem, Dec. 29, 2008.  (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)

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  • Photo Essay Israel Strikes Gaza

    Hundreds killed as Israel pounds Hamas security installations.

  • Interactive Mideast Conflict

    Events, key players and a history of the world's most unstable region.

(CBS/AP)  Israeli aircraft kept up a relentless string of assaults on Hamas-ruled Gaza on Tuesday, smashing a government complex, security installations and the home of a top militant commander as thousands of Israeli ground troops, backed by tanks and artillery, massed along the border, waiting for a signal to attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told President Shimon Peres on Tuesday that the current, aerial phase of the operation is "the first of several" that have been approved, an Olmert spokesman said.

That statement indicated a change in tactics near on the horizon.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips, reporting from the Gaza-Israel border, said the Israeli campaign in Gaza was approaching a turning point Tuesday: "Either keep up the bombing and augment it with ground operations, or declare that the massive retaliation for rocket fire into Israel has done enough damage to force Hamas into another cease fire - or at least what the Israelis call a lower level of terror."

But, said Phillips, the killing of three more Israelis by Hamas rockets on Monday and overnight may have firmed up Tel Aviv's plans.

Four Israelis have now been killed by Hamas rocket fire since the assault began, and the fact one of the deaths occurred in the port city of Ashdod is a worrying sign that the range of Hamas missiles is increasing.

The recent image of an Israeli cabinet minister taking shelter under a car in an Israeli city is not the outcome that was foreseen by those who planned this operation, reported Phillips.

Israel says it is prepared for "long weeks of action."

The ground option is on the table, it's relevant," said Israeli Army spokeswoman Major Avital Leibovich. "Currently we continue with the aircraft operation, however, we have troops on alert along the border and other places in the country ready if we need to call them."

Warplanes launched their bruising offensive on Saturday after the Islamic Hamas defied Israel's warnings that it would not stand for the rocket barrages on southern Israel that resumed nearly two months ago, toward the end of a recently expired truce.

More than 360 Palestinians have been killed, most of them members of Hamas security forces but at least 64 of them civilians, according to U.N. figures. The toll includes two sisters, aged 4 and 11, who perished in an airstrike on a rocket squad in northern Gaza on Tuesday.

As the death toll rises, so does pressure from the International community on Israel.

CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk reported that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called the escalation of violence unacceptable and demanded an immediate ceasefire.



Photos: Israel Targets Hamas
Israeli soldiers sit atop a tank at a staging area near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2008. (AP)

“The Secretary General said he has condemned Hamas in the past and now he is condemning Israel for excessive use of force,” reported Falk. Ban's remarks came after the U.N. compound in Gaza was hit in a missile strike, killing eight teenage student trainers and a U.N. staff member.

While Israel has dropped tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip in an unprecedented show of force to make Hamas stop rocket attacks, it has not said it will try to topple the Islamic militants who have ruled the territory for 18 months.

CBS News correspondent Sheila MacVicar reported on the history of Gaza under Hamas rule - a history which made the present conflict seem inevitable. (Click here to watch the video.)

Such a limited definition of goals gives Israel considerable flexibility in deciding when to end the assault, especially if international pressure mounts, while still calling it a success, wrote Associated Press reporter Karin Laub, in an analysis of the current conflict.

But this guarded approach also offers Hamas good survival odds, even if the onslaught leaves it badly weakened.

Israel's unwillingness to reoccupy Gaza or openly try to install a new ruler there gives Hamas considerable leverage in future cease-fire negotiations.

(CBS)
In exchange for calm on Israel's border, Hamas demands an end to the crippling blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after the Hamas takeover of Gaza 18 months ago. Hamas, which won 2006 parliamentary elections, seized control after a power-sharing agreement with the rival Fatah movement collapsed in violence.

Ending the blockade could help Hamas recover quickly and prolong its rule indefinitely. That, in turn, would all but destroy prospects of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Israel has been negotiating for the past year with Hamas' rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who controls the West Bank. However, Israel says it cannot implement an agreement as long as the Iranian-backed Hamas, sworn to Israel's destruction, controls half of what would be a Palestinian state.

Domestic politics is also playing an underlying role in Israel's handling of the military operation. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's term is up in February, and his party will face former leader Benjamin Netanyahu in the polls.

Netanyahu, now the leader of the hardline political opposition, told CBS' The Early Show he has vowed to support the government's decisions in the current conflict, but he has taken a much harder stance on Hamas for years - a stance that could win him support if this fighting isn't resolved as a perceived win for Israel.

While Olmert's government has said toppling Hamas in Gaza is not an objective, Netanyahu told The Early Show: "Ultimately, we'll have to remove that regime. Not necessarily right away, but ultimately that will have to be done."

It all complicates the matter exponentially for President-elect Barack Obama, who vowed during his campaign to make Mideast peace a cornerstone of his foreign policy.

Obama's foreign policy advisers are lying low out of deference to President George W. Bush and are refusing to speak to the implications of Israel's three-day-old operation in the volatile Gaza Strip. But transition aides are being briefed by Bush administration officials and quietly pondering its effects.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has had "direct conversations" about the situation with both Obama and her designated successor, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the State Department said Monday. An Obama aide said the president-elect would be discussing the matter with Clinton and his choice to be national security adviser, retired Gen. James Jones.

©MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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by engymass2 December 31, 2008 6:31 PM EST
THE JEWS HAVE BEEN IN THAT LAND SINCE BEFORE THE TIME OF MOSES.... THE ARABS HAVE BEEN IN EGYPT (OCCUPIERS IN EGYPT) SINCE 600 AD... YET IT WOULD BE CRAZY TO ASK THE ARABS TO LEAVE...
THE JEWS HAVE AS MUCH RIGHT TO THE LAND (IF NOT MORE) THAN THE "PALESTINIANS" !!!
Reply to this comment
by noloyalisti December 31, 2008 2:11 PM EST
Israel and the US, the two major terrorist nations of the world. Only they call it self-defense.

Boycott both countries. Spread the word around the world and tell a friend.
Reply to this comment
by closethippy1 December 31, 2008 11:28 AM EST
THE ORIGINAL SIN:

"Should we be unable to find a way to honest cooperation and honest pacts with the Arabs, then we have learned absolutely nothing during our 2,000 years of suffering and deserve all that will come to us."
Albert Einstein

"...If we had invested in the Arab problem one tenth of the energy, the passion, the ingenuity, the resourcefulness
which we developed in order to gain the support of Britain, France, the US and Weimar Germany, our destiny in the development of Israel may have been quite different... We were not ready for compromises; we did not make sufficient efforts to get, if not the full agreement of the Arabs, at least their acquiescence to a Jewish state, which I think would have been possible. That was the original sin."
Dr. Nahum Goldmann
President of the World Jewish Congress
writing in the New Outlook,
November-December 1974

Reply to this comment
by closethippy1 December 31, 2008 11:18 AM EST
Posted by dwmcgill at 03:33 PM : Dec 30, 2008

"closethippy1,
So by confiscation you mean when the local Arabs sell their lands to Jews?"

The Zionists were only able to buy 7% of the land by 1948. By the end of 1948 there were over 700,000 Palestinian refugees who lost their homes and I doubt they sold their homes and headed straight to refugee camps.
There''s also an ongoing confiscation of Palestinian land, like the 60% of the West Bank that has been taken over by the 500,000 Jewish settlers transfered to those lands.

"And you believe that the UN is a capable of keeping peace?..."

It''s Israel that is supposed to implement international law and the UN resolutions. What the Palestinians do with their land is their business. Israel cannot be allowed to decide when to implement the UN resolutions because they''ll never be satisfied with the behavior of the people under their occupation.

"Palestine, as a nation, as a distinct people, do not exist. They are Jordanians..."

Jordan first appeared in the 1920''s after the British took over the southern part of Syria.
Palestine was named so by the Greek historian Herodotus around 400 BC.

"Why shouldn''''t France start bombing Canada to take back their lands?... Sounds a lot like world chaos."

It''d be chaotic if everyone tried to use bogus history to take over other people''s land. Like the Serbs in Kosovo because they say that''s where the Serb nation started even if not supported by historical records.
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by shirajordan December 31, 2008 8:11 AM EST
To all the people who sleep safely in their beds at night and have the audacity to criticize the Israeli government, this is for you:
None of you spoke in the past 8 years when rockets and bombs fell in southern Israeli cities, causing death and destruction without any provocation on our part.
What you need to understand are two things-
First of all, there is no functioning government in Gaza. The Hamas took over (in a military coup!) and they are running the show. The Hamas, in case you didn''t know, is a terror organization. Just like Al-kaida and Hezbollah. Israel is dealing with terror organizations all through its borders. Not with governments. And not with civilians. We have nothing against the Palestinians. Only the terrorists.
The second thing you need to know is that the Hamas is a very cynical organization which uses innocent women and children to fight Israel. They launch their missals from civilian''s houses, not from open fields or military camps, and when the Israeli army wants to destroy those missals launchers- sometimes innocent people die.
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by shirajordan December 31, 2008 8:10 AM EST
-continue-
They stash weapons; bombs etc. in hospitals, mosques, civil houses and schools exactly for this reason- they know that the Israeli army will not bomb those places. Over the years, they have dig tunnels between Egypt and Gaza to smuggle everything, including weapons which is being used against us.
The Israeli army has such advanced technologies they can surgically hit those places. And that is exactly what we are doing. The manipulations in the media, done by the Arabs are ridicules, at best.
Ask yourself- what would you do if your life was constantly under threat? Look at the map. Maybe that will help you grasp our geographic situation.
The purpose of the Israeli army is to defend. Not attack.
So next time you think about how miserable and poor the Palestinians are, and how powerful and evil the Israelis are- think again. And if you support the Palestinians right now in any way- that means you support terrorism.
(Written by a left-wing Israeli who thinks terror should not win anywhere in the world).
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by kawosa December 30, 2008 10:12 PM EST
Yee Haw! Almost like shooting fish in a barrel, but easier. Especially the children! They make smaller targets and scream louder... Your GOD be with you Israel.
Reply to this comment
by dwmcgill December 30, 2008 6:33 PM EST
closethippy1,

So by confiscation you mean when the local Arabs sell their lands to Jews?

And you believe that the UN is a capable of keeping peace? That is truly humorous. The UN of today is a far cry from the one in 1947-8. But, even in the twisted world that is the UN, they have not voted for a nation for "Palestinians", only a homeland, which is significantly different.

Palestine, as a nation, as a distinct people, do not exist. They are Jordanians. Some how Jordan has found a chilly, but basic level of peace with Israel.

Your dog-eat-dog world totally justifies Israel''s actions. Why shouldn''t France start bombing Canada to take back their lands? Only one of countless opportunities to try out your theory. Sounds a lot like world chaos.
Reply to this comment
by dwmcgill December 30, 2008 6:25 PM EST
mtminds,

Well said. Hamas is clearly not able to pay for itself
Reply to this comment
by closethippy1 December 30, 2008 6:05 PM EST
If Israel is being attacked in any way by Palestinians is because of the occupation and confiscation of their land.
Every word the Palestinians have said about Israel, every action taken, every breath comes after the fact.
Most Jews who lived in Palestine before Israel was created in 1948 came to Palestine after the end of World War 2. It wasn''t until 1996 that Israel elected a Prime Minister who was actually born in Israel.
So if land can be taken by force then, heck, it''s more than OK to take it back by force!
The only way to stop the bloodshed over there is by implementing international law which will then lead to the implementation of the agreed UN resolutions.
I don''t understand why Israel and the US are against this since Israel is the only country in the world to have been created by the UN!
So if the UN laws are good enough for its creation it sure is good enough to keep the peace.


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by deafgolf78 December 30, 2008 5:41 PM EST
i m mean Honor to King James. Not word honest
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by deafgolf78 December 30, 2008 5:40 PM EST
I understand King James is are not baptist... why explain old baptist live in wales. and pray.. God use King James. but hear King James. and one man from wales meet to him and He honest to King James. God use you. then He was leave return to wales. God use him are king is author.
Reply to this comment
by deafgolf78 December 30, 2008 5:19 PM EST
pfness:

I m baptist from Anabaptist was from empire romans kill christ and year rome city kick christian to live in mountain. year grow up Rome city become very old Catholic is same old thing to..

Baptist can''t salvation to u. but all have sinner but though Jesus Christ dead for my sinner.. I confess and accept Jesus in my heart as salvation. In Romans 10:9, 13. reason I pick up member Baptist is very honest and reason generation from Anabaptist and Old Christian was suffer in dark ago time.
Reply to this comment
by mtminds December 30, 2008 5:19 PM EST
Iran''s proxy army leaders in their Hamas and Hezbollah proxy armies are cowering with their women and children.
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by deafgolf78 December 30, 2008 5:11 PM EST
pfness:

you are right. I m christian. but use King James version. reason in many year ago In Dark ago. Old catholic kill anabaptist and bible was bunin germany was line from first and bible burned until year 1494 - 1536 Tyndale prayed while fire " Lord, open the King of England''s eyes.." he dead many year until King James power. he want english bible use from hebrew and greek. but people think King James self. no no James hired all 40 people. if 40 of one out are not story then did again. when 40 ppls same story..

I have the DEFIND King James Bible has explain about different bible has removal. and other the complete word study new testament has english and greek too by Edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.
Reply to this comment
by deafgolf78 December 30, 2008 5:11 PM EST
pfness:

you are right. I m christian. but use King James version. reason in many year ago In Dark ago. Old catholic kill anabaptist and bible was bunin germany was line from first and bible burned until year 1494 - 1536 Tyndale prayed while fire " Lord, open the King of England''s eyes.." he dead many year until King James power. he want english bible use from hebrew and greek. but people think King James self. no no James hired all 40 people. if 40 of one out are not story then did again. when 40 ppls same story..

I have the DEFIND King James Bible has explain about different bible has removal. and other the complete word study new testament has english and greek too by Edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.
Reply to this comment
by deafgolf78 December 30, 2008 5:11 PM EST
pfness:

you are right. I m christian. but use King James version. reason in many year ago In Dark ago. Old catholic kill anabaptist and bible was bunin germany was line from first and bible burned until year 1494 - 1536 Tyndale prayed while fire " Lord, open the King of England''s eyes.." he dead many year until King James power. he want english bible use from hebrew and greek. but people think King James self. no no James hired all 40 people. if 40 of one out are not story then did again. when 40 ppls same story..

I have the DEFIND King James Bible has explain about different bible has removal. and other the complete word study new testament has english and greek too by Edited by Spiros Zodhiates, Th.D.
Reply to this comment
by dwmcgill December 30, 2008 5:09 PM EST
lovegetpeace,

It is clear that you are against Israel''s actions and while I don''t like the violence any more than you, I see it as a reaction to prevent further violence in the future
Reply to this comment
by dwmcgill December 30, 2008 5:07 PM EST
Don''t you know this is ALL the jews fault. How dare they insist on not having missiles randomly launched into their neighborhoods.
Those peace-loving Hamas are so worthy of emulation. Just mandate that you have Gaza to yourselves so that you can fire off missiles without fear of retaliation, but make sure the missile launchers are by the kiddies just in case the mean jews decide to take the launchers out.
Reply to this comment
by pfness December 30, 2008 4:52 PM EST
WHEN JESUS COME SIT AND RULE AND PEACE 1,000 YEAR. ANGEL CATCH AND PUT SATAN IN BOTTLE SAME TIME 1,000 YEAR. IN 20:1 - 6
Posted by deafgolf78
_____________________________________________________

You know "deafgolf78", Tyndale was burned at the stake because he had spent many a year and effort to get a bible out there that everyone could read for themselves and understand.

And here you go translating it all back into Greek.

I think I know what you just said, but only because I have been trying to decipher the book of Revelation for the last 30 years. I recognized some of the "catch words". I might totally agree with you if I knew "exactly" what you just said in your last 3 posts.

I know....somebody is going to come back at me and say I''m judging your ability to speak English. If I''m not clear on what I say, I don''t mind someone asking me to explain in more detail what I just said.
So....care to rephrase all that?
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